Chronic Pain & Crafting, Part 4: Crafting Tools as Adaptive Tools

Part of the appeal of knitting and crochet is the way you can take some sticks and string and like magic turn them in afghans, sweaters, dresses, cushions, or anything your heart desires and your mind can dream up. At its core, yarncrafts require very few tools other than yarn, a selection of needles or…

Chronic Pain and Crafting, Part 3: Exercises and Accessories

While I myself am not a physical therapist, the exercises below are often recommended for crafters to stretch tense muscles and increase strength and flexibility, releasing tension and discomfort and preventing future stress and pain. These should be considered gentle stretches; you should feel a pulling sensation, but not pain. If the movement is painful,…

Chronic Pain and Crafting, Part 2: Fibers and yarns

Let’s talk about fibers. Wool is know for being squishy and bouncy with natural elasticity that makes it perfect for both knitting and crochet. However, it’s not perfect for every person or every situation. Wool or wool superwash blends frequently retain that elasticity while reducing allergies from lanolin (in the case of superwash), adding loft,…

Knit Tea October 2022

Eisaku Noro, the founder of Noro Yarns, passed away on September 9. Find out more about him here. Southern California teen Noemi Mendez crocheted her Quinceanera dress Knitwear designer Veronika Lindberg knitted and crocheted her wedding dress. She chronicled the journey on her youtube channel. She also released a book of patterns, Knit This! around…

Publishing Roadmap Release!

It's a little late, but the Publishing Roadmap is out now and available for download from my shop. This booklet looks at Traditional, Small Press/Indie, and self publishing, as well as things like writing for websites and magazines. There's also basic marketing info, a guide to hand selling your books, and worksheets and checklists you…

Knit Tea

Knit Tea is a semi-regular podcast segment that I've decided to bring over to the blog. If you know of any news or events from the yarnosphere (not pattern releases or sales) drop me a line and I'll include it! August 18-21, 2022--Camp Ida-Haven in McCall, Idaho will be hosting the Fiber.Love.Retreat. $325 covers a…

Writing WIPs

Now that Magic in Midtown is out, and a series is complete, what am I working on right now? My current project is finishing the rest of the Midnight Radio series. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a running series of spooky, Cthuhlu-esque short stories I’m running over on patreon. You can read…

Magic in Midtown Release

That's right, it's release day! You can now pick up the second book of the AJ Marshall series on Amazon & on Gumroad. Remember, if you want anything other than whatever the current standard kindle format is, head on over to Gumroad where I list .mobi, .epub, .pdf, and any other requested formats (leave a…

Magic in Midtown Cover and Q&A

Sorry, which book is this? I've referred to this as Magic in the Jazz Age previously, but have been unhappy with that title for a while. This is the title my patrons voted on. You can vote on titles, character names, plot points, and more over on Patreon. What series is it from?This is the…

Feline Fine, Part II: Our cats’ favorite things

There is nothing our cats like better than watching the birds out the window--and waiting for us to come home on the rare occasions one of us leaves (even if it's just to take out the trash). They can see everything with their two window perches. The suction cup style hammock can hold up to…